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The Xinu Page
- Samuel_Michon 14y agoX is not UNIX (XNU), GNU is not UNIX (GNU), there are quite a few OSes that aren't Unix. Heck, even UNIX is not UNIX: https://encyclopediadramatica.se/UNIX https://encyclopediadramatica.se/UNIX
- zubinmehta 14y agoThe cool part is - UNIX not is XINU
- Samuel_Michon 14y agoDon't you mean 'XINU ton si UNIX'?
- shrikant 14y ago'XTSU' just doesn't have the same ring to it.
- dalke 14y agoUNIX <> XINU
- jckt 14y agoThe thing is, that page is better than half of all the unix guides I've seen online. Except for the `su -c rm -rf /*` part, of course.
- ripperdoc 14y agoFun and completely irrelevant fact: "Xinu" is the name of the God of Pain in a popular Swedish role-playing game (pen and paper). See here: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http://wiki.mundana.org/index.php/Xinu http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js...
- contingencies 14y agoSo while you can download code, the real description is in a book, not online, and you can't see it without paying money. Uninspiring.
- andreasvc 14y agoThis is exactly the kind of thing that inspired Linus to make Linux.
- andybak 14y agoJust to point out another title edit by the mods. The original title was 'Xinu is not Unix'. Considering that's the first line of the body copy it was hardly excessive editorialising in need of fixing and actually did a better job of setting expectations than the pedestrian replacement title.
- mapleoin 14y agoThese mods seem too much like bots lately. Maybe they are?
- JulianMorrison 14y agoIf HN wants to force use of the <title> element as the post title, why not just auto fill it from the URL and disable editing? it seems silly to offer an editable field whose contents are auto-discarded.
- zubinmehta 14y ago"Xinu Is Not Unix" - also gives more information than "The Xinu Page". Hence, I used it. If you don't feel OS-ey then you may skip the link!
- artlogic 14y agoI own volumes 1, 2 and the PC version. I can vouch for the quality and understandability of the code. I've read a number of operating systems books, and I've found volume 1 to be one of the most straightforward - if you can get past the fact it's written with the PDP-11 in mind. I bought the PC version on a whim after reading volume 1, and found it to be lacking in a number of ways, using BIOS for many system services and glossing over memory protection (not surprising as it targeted the 8086). One of the more interesting things about Xinu is that its security model is ring based, and if I remember right, it takes advantage of rings 0-3, unlike many modern operating systems. I can't actually remember if the PDP-11's hardware supported this, or if it was emulated by the kernel. One of my rainy day projects has always been to get Xinu up and running on a PDP-11 emulator - too many operating systems, too little time.
- Erwin 14y agoOS/2 was another one using multiple rings. Interestingly VirtualBox takes advantage of x86's multiple rings: http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch10.html#idp12629776 http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch10.html#idp12629776 (which contains other interessting details about VirtualBox, like the disassembles and patches code running in the VM in certain cases)
- primitur 14y agoSweet ram o' the rod, a name from the mists emerges.. It has been a long time since I played with Xinu, at least before Linux came to rule the roost .. someone remind me, though, doesn't Xinu have its own compiler onboard, i.e. why do we need two machines, just to bootstrap? Once booted, does a Xinu machine have all it needs to build an image for another Xinu machine? I guess its a matter of taste, but this dusty beard reckons its not Unix if you're not building another Unix with it. ;P]
- contingencies 14y agoI was scratching my head where I'd heard that name .... and it came to me! Scientology. puke.
- lucian1900 14y agoI thought that was Xenu.
- contingencies 14y agoDon't they pronounce the same in your head? To me they do.
- lucian1900 14y agoNot in my head, no. Not being a native English speaker may contribute to that.
- svec 14y agoI have fond memories of using Xinu in Dr. Comer's OS course back at Purdue. It's a nice little OS! (and he's a great prof!)
- joezydeco 14y agoI was directly involved in one of the "industry" projects mentioned on this page. It's great to see Comer's work still around and kicking. XINU was a pleasure to work with. Our company's lawyers also loved XINU because of the license. The GPL scared them so much we had to take Linux off the table.